The MP in charge of Labour’s local election campaign has claimed that any progress on the party’s performance in 2015 should be seen as a positive result, even though that could mean losing dozens of council seats.

Campaigners for Britain to remain in the EU have told David Cameron that his government’s handling of the steel crisis has put him in danger of losing the in/out referendum, as Brexit supporters prepare to target steel communities with hundreds of thousands of leaflets.

One of the biggest steelmakers in Britain, second in size only to Tata, has said there is no guarantee that the industry will survive if the government fails to step up its response to the current crisis.